


Nightingales

by SoulStealer1987



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Character Death, F/M, I Ship It, I Will Fill This Tag Myself If I Have To, I Will Go Down With This Ship, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-04
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2019-05-18 02:15:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14843676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoulStealer1987/pseuds/SoulStealer1987
Summary: So I had a dream the other night that I finally downloaded a follower mod for Karliah, and it was great. Much to my horror, however, I found out the hard way when we were running away from some guards that Karliah was no longer essential. This fic was the result, because I had to do something to keep myself from breaking down crying as soon as I woke up.(Of course, it helped somewhat that I play on PS4, and there IS no follower mod for Karliah. Probably for the best, the lone follower mod for Brynjolf kind of sucks. But then I was sad again because Karliah's just stuck in Nightingale Hall forever and I just- LET ME TAKE HER WITH ME ON MY ADVENTURES OK)





	Nightingales

Karliah sees the arrow sticking out of her chest before she feels it. Her eyes go wide, and as she meets her companion’s terrified gaze, she feels her legs buckle beneath her. She can almost respect the guard that fired the shot, truthfully. Getting a killing blow with one arrow is hard. Getting an arrow directly in someone’s heart is even harder.

Before she can collapse entirely, her fellow Nightingale catches her. Karliah can feel her strength waning already, and at far too fast a rate for any sort of healing to fix. She knows she’s going to die, but at least she can go out with some sort of one-liner, the likes of which Gallus would be proud of. 

_ Gallus… _

She almost smiles.

“Oh, okay,” Karliah says softly as her vision darkens, quickly accepting this. “Bye.”

_ Shadows take me. _

When Karliah wakes up, she can tell immediately that she’s not alive, not anymore. The living aren’t see-through and don’t emit a brilliant blue glow, after all, and besides, she recognizes this place. She is a Nightingale, after all, and Nightingales are bound to serve Nocturnal both in life and in death.

This is the Twilight Sepulcher, the sacred temple of Nocturnal, and she doesn’t have to see the face of the spectral Nightingale waiting for her to know who he is. He offers her a hand, she takes it, and only then does he speak.

“It’s good to see you, Karliah,” Gallus whispers. Behind her mask, she smirks. Without any sort of warning, she leaps into his arms. The two embrace.

“It’s good to see you too,” Karliah replies breathlessly. 

He holds her and she holds him. She and Gallus stay like that for what seems like an eternity, until Karliah realizes something. Her eyes widen, and she steps back.

“I’m supposed to protect the Sepulcher still,” she realizes, staring at Gallus in shock. “And you… you’re already done. Aren’t you?” Gallus nods.

“I am,” he confirms, and Karliah’s heart sinks. “However, Nocturnal didn’t see fit for you to serve alone. I volunteered to join you.” Karliah’s eyes widen, and fill with tears, and she’s glad - not for the first time - that she’s wearing a mask.

“You didn’t have to do this,” Karliah protests weakly. Gallus takes her hand in his, and gives it a comforting squeeze.

“On the contrary, my little nightingale,” he says as he pulls her close, “I would like nothing better than to stay here with you.” 

Karliah finally gives up and cries. She cries, she sobs, she mourns for everything they’ve lost, everything she didn’t dare to let out before. She lets it all out, and Gallus stays  with her through it all, until the very end. Finally, she blinks back the last of her tears and glances his way.

“I missed you, you know,” Karliah manages at last, tugging down her mask to reveal her face. Gallus nods, and does the same. “I missed you so, so much…”

“I missed you too,” Gallus whispers as he leans in.

They kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> I might have fibbed a bit about how this fic was written. I actually wrote it a while ago, it's been on my Tumblr for some time, but I had that dream the other night and remembered this.
> 
> Figured I might as well shove more of my fic into the Gallus/Karliah tag. I'm gonna keep doing this.


End file.
